The Coachella Valley Firebirds (32-9-4-2) scored four times in the second period on their way to a 6-1 over the Ontario Reign (29-18-2-1) on Wednesday night at Toyota Arena. Kole Lind led the way for the visitors, scoring two of the four in the middle period, while Joey Daccord earned the win in net with saves on 24 of Ontario’s 25 shots on goal.
The loss snapped the Reign’s seven-game streak where they were unbeaten in regulation, which dated back to Feb. 4. Ontario’s only tally came from Martin Chromiak in the first period, his fifth goal in six games against the Firebirds this season.
More from head coach Marco Sturm and Jack Becker below.
Ontario had a good start to the game which featured two successful penalty kills in the first 12 minutes. They then found the back of the net to take the lead at 14:31 of the first, a shot by Chromiak off a rebound that he put through the legs of Daccord to make it 1-0. Assists on the Chromiak strike went to Aidan Dudas, who had the initial shot to the net, as well as Jacob Moverare.
The Reign held their lead into the first intermission, but things changed in the second when Coachella Valley turned the game around with their offensive outburst. Lind had the first two Firebirds tallies at 1:20 and 8:59, before Eddie Wittchow scored on an odd man rush wrister at 11:28 and Alexander True capped off the period with a power play goal at 18:26.
The Reign were unable to get any closer in the third. They started the period by putting the first six shots on goal of the frame at the Firebirds’ net, but Daccord successfully saved each to hold the three-goal lead for Coachella Valley.
With Ontario taking risks to get back in the game late, the Firebirds tacked on two more goals to extend their lead. The first came from Tye Kartye at 13:37, while the final strike was a shorthanded goal by John Hayden at 18:32.
Coachella Valley held a 37-25 edge in shots on goal in the game and had the only power play tally, going 1-for-6 on the man-advantage while holding Ontario to an 0-for-3 mark.
Marco Sturm
On the team’s fatigue after so many games in a short amount of time
Yes, we’ve played a lot of games in a short time period, but again, you’ve still got to find a way to compete. Today, we had a decent start through the first 20 minutes. Probably not our best, but the guys came and then all of a sudden we just stopped. And that’s not how we want to present ourselves.
On moving on quickly
We pretty much have to now that the game is over. There’s nothing we can do [about it now]. We couldn’t fix anything tonight, that’s for sure, but tomorrow is a new day. We try to get better again tomorrow and the biggest thing for us now is “how do we respond?” That’s what we’ll try to do.
On when things started to go wrong
On the first shift, right away, in the first seconds [it went wrong]. On the first two shifts, we spent the whole time in our end. Those two lines were our best players and they should be our best players on the ice, and they couldn’t get it done.
On preparing for San Jose
We know how they’re going to play. They are a hard-working team. They just got away from us the last few times, so we’ve just got to make sure we respond from tonight and get back to work. We have to go back to the details where we can win and play our game.
Jack Becker
The Reign return to action on Friday night when they battle the San Jose Barracuda at Toyota Arena beginning at 7 p.m.
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